-TL, DR: Had a great weekend fishing and hunting in S Texas. Feel free to skip the story and check out the pics.-
I'm finally getting around to posting this, but wanted to share my last weekend with the OB. My brother's wife's family has ~3,700 low fence acres in Bee County, and I was fortunate enough to get a chance to go hunting down there....
But first, some fishing. I drove from Austin to Beeville late Thursday night. We loaded up early Friday morning and headed to Port Aransas for some kayak fishing. We ended up with ~10 reds and 20 specks between us, but only 4 keepers (ranging from ~20-22").
We fished until about 1 pm, then headed back to Beeville. After a quick shower to wash off the fish and salt water, we headed out to the ranch around 3:30 pm. Most of the stands are set up for rifle hunting, but I wanted to hunt with my bow if possible. We didn't have a pop-up with us, but luckily found a suitable area to cut out a quick brush blind about 35 yards from a feeder. We left the area and spent a little time riding around the place. I came back to the "blind" around 5:30 and scared off a small group of hogs when I walked up. I could still hear them in the brush, so I quickly sat down and put on my facemask and left hand glove. Within minutes the feeder went off and the hogs came right back. I shot one of them, then decided to sit for a while and see if anything else came out. (No pic of the hog since we eventually had bigger things to deal with, and the brush where he ran is thick and thorny.)
At about 6:15, I have a big deer pop out right behind the feeder. I can tell he is big and mature. After verifying (by text message to my bro) that I was good to shoot, I had to watch him for about 30 minutes waiting for a shot. He stood the whole time facing me, mostly with his head down. When he did move, he was behind the feeder leg or in a bad position in relation to the fence. He finally turned to the left and looked back over his right shoulder, and I was able to take a shot. I hit him a little further back than I wanted, but the arrow tracked toward his off shoulder, catching the top of the lungs and liver. It did not pass through (which turned out to be a blessing). I heard him crashing through the brush for a few seconds and then it abruptly stopped. I felt good about the shot, but was still very anxious.
Here is my view from the blind. The deer is actually standing at the feeder in the pic. I had to shoot through the small opening in the tree, through the fence, and to the feeder:
We trailed him for 20-30 yards through the brush and huisache until I looked down the sendero and saw my green Nockturnal nock shining. Now I started actually getting excited...
And here he is:
The next morning my brother sat in a tripod in the same area I killed my buck and notched 2 coyotes and a big "management" 8 point with his 6.5 Creedmoor AR. He also shot a doe (not pictured) on the way back to the barn to clean his buck...
Since we had both tagged out, we did a little bird hunting Saturday night. I was able to shoot some dove, and also killed my first quail (4 total).
All told, it was a great weekend in Texas.
I'm finally getting around to posting this, but wanted to share my last weekend with the OB. My brother's wife's family has ~3,700 low fence acres in Bee County, and I was fortunate enough to get a chance to go hunting down there....
But first, some fishing. I drove from Austin to Beeville late Thursday night. We loaded up early Friday morning and headed to Port Aransas for some kayak fishing. We ended up with ~10 reds and 20 specks between us, but only 4 keepers (ranging from ~20-22").
We fished until about 1 pm, then headed back to Beeville. After a quick shower to wash off the fish and salt water, we headed out to the ranch around 3:30 pm. Most of the stands are set up for rifle hunting, but I wanted to hunt with my bow if possible. We didn't have a pop-up with us, but luckily found a suitable area to cut out a quick brush blind about 35 yards from a feeder. We left the area and spent a little time riding around the place. I came back to the "blind" around 5:30 and scared off a small group of hogs when I walked up. I could still hear them in the brush, so I quickly sat down and put on my facemask and left hand glove. Within minutes the feeder went off and the hogs came right back. I shot one of them, then decided to sit for a while and see if anything else came out. (No pic of the hog since we eventually had bigger things to deal with, and the brush where he ran is thick and thorny.)
At about 6:15, I have a big deer pop out right behind the feeder. I can tell he is big and mature. After verifying (by text message to my bro) that I was good to shoot, I had to watch him for about 30 minutes waiting for a shot. He stood the whole time facing me, mostly with his head down. When he did move, he was behind the feeder leg or in a bad position in relation to the fence. He finally turned to the left and looked back over his right shoulder, and I was able to take a shot. I hit him a little further back than I wanted, but the arrow tracked toward his off shoulder, catching the top of the lungs and liver. It did not pass through (which turned out to be a blessing). I heard him crashing through the brush for a few seconds and then it abruptly stopped. I felt good about the shot, but was still very anxious.
Here is my view from the blind. The deer is actually standing at the feeder in the pic. I had to shoot through the small opening in the tree, through the fence, and to the feeder:
We trailed him for 20-30 yards through the brush and huisache until I looked down the sendero and saw my green Nockturnal nock shining. Now I started actually getting excited...
And here he is:
The next morning my brother sat in a tripod in the same area I killed my buck and notched 2 coyotes and a big "management" 8 point with his 6.5 Creedmoor AR. He also shot a doe (not pictured) on the way back to the barn to clean his buck...
Since we had both tagged out, we did a little bird hunting Saturday night. I was able to shoot some dove, and also killed my first quail (4 total).
All told, it was a great weekend in Texas.